Better first class for law School, Property or Contracts Forum

[zreinhar]

I will be attending law school part time this fall and will be taking my time with classes, as in I will have my LRW class and a legal bibliography class (3 hours together) and I will take one substantitave class, my main question is which class would be the best to start off with, maybe is the easiest for someone from a non-liberal arts background (eng undergrad) I would like to keep the possibility open about transferring, hence why i am splitting up my classes into more semesters, which will allow me to adjust my methods accordingly... thoughts? jokes? insults?

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Contracts.

[zreinhar]

Would you choose that out of torts and civ pro as well? i thought contracts was more boring than property (entirely unjustified hearsay)

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Well Torts/Criminal law are an easy classes. I would refrain from taking civpro because it's out there in terms of courses you can immediately grasp. Conlaw is a bad first class for a engineering major. Out of contracts and property, contracts is more 'scientific' in the sense that it is more likely to have an correct answer in the questions you are likely to encounter.

[zreinhar]

wow, wasnt expecting an answer that in depth... preciate it, so it'll probably be contracts first with torts and civpro to follow and ill take con law and property near the end as I will hopefully have a good grasp by then

[apper123]

Ks and it's not close

Torts is another good option. Ks or Torts for sure. Hell nah to CivPro or Property. ConLaw is just... different than everything else.

[sillysassafrass]

Maybe its just me, but I think Torts would be a better class. It is more interesting, you get to hear about all kinds of crazy stories, where Contracts, is just.....boring.

Although in my school Contracts is a two semester class, so I guess would be good to get one semester done early...

[jetlagz28]

Don't be afraid to jump right in. How long do you want to to be in law school for?

Contracts is more interesting than property.

I think civ pro will only make sense if you take it concurrently with other law classes or after have taken some.

Torts is the most fun.

[zreinhar]

contracts is a two part class at my (soon to be) school as well, Im just gonna try to transfer (but am not planning on it, and would love to graduate from my dirt cheap T2 school, however I would also like to cut my teeth on something not so boring... Ill prob choose between torts and contracts then.. im most likely (99% sure) gonna be at Georgia state this fall, (just scored an awesome engineering gig here in town making bank) so ill pay for my cheap in state part time while i save money for my potential transfer, i digress, i plan on being in school for four years. my 1L will be stretched over two years to start and ill go full time for my last two, either in the full time program at state, or a FT program at a school I transfer to.. but keep em coming, im curious as to what everyone thinks.

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Maybe its just me, but I think Torts would be a better class. It is more interesting, you get to hear about all kinds of crazy stories, where Contracts, is just.....boring.

I doubt many engineers will find contracts boring.

hth

[prezidentv8]

My preferences:


CivPro>Property=Contracts>ConLaw>>>Torts>Crim

[Ipsa Dixit]

Contracts.

I didn't like the class, but it was an easy subject to grasp.

[macattaq]

Meh. I'd say torts. It is fairly mechanical, I think, so for a non liberal arts person, it could be a good first class. Its generally pretty easy, and a good intro to law school and legal reasoning. The cases aren't too tough, but they will still help you in developing your legal vocabulary. That will help you when you take other classes later on. Plus, during this time, you will be trying to figure out your study method. Doing this during a class like torts won't put you behind like it could for a class like contracts.

[NewHere]

Contracts or Torts.

The two of them provide a basis for other classes -- it's good to know about the basics of tort liability and contract remedies. Almost all other 1L classes (criminal law excepted perhaps) assume some knowledge of these basics.

[270910]

Contracts, property, torts, and criminal law are identical. Each course will teach you the exact same thing.

Check common sense or real world reasoning at the door for Civ Pro. It's a good class, but as others have noted it might be hard to tackle it without something substantive prior or concurrent to ground your understanding of procedure.

Con law is a pretty unique beast. Nothing wrong with taking it sooner or later, but one of the big 4 is probably a better bet.

People's opinions of the differences between Ks, property, torts, and cirm will likely be heavily influenced by their professor and how it was taught at their school. But since the classes are identical in every conceivable respect, you can't go wrong.

[zreinhar]

Thanks again for all the info, I'll prob start with Torts as my interest my waiver as I get accustomed to the work that is involved with this beast, I'm also very grateful for the relation to my non-liberal arts background, any thoughts on my overall plans? going PT, taking it slow so I can really adjust easier if need be? otherwise, any other thoughts or ideas on my unique situation?

[PSLaplace]

I do agree that OP should not take Civ Pro first; learning procedure without any substantive law context is like trying to learn quantum mechanics without having taken classical mechanics: it's too abstract to grasp by itself.

However, I actually think engineers/scientists have an easier time, relative to liberal arts majors, with Civ Pro. Although the interplay between the seemingly endless rules may seem chaotic, it usually leads to a very mechanical, black-and-white analysis with little ambiguity. FWIW - I was an engineer in undergrad (EE) and my Civ Pro professor was a physics undergrad.

Edit: My vote goes for Torts or Contracts. Torts is probably easier, but Contracts concepts seem to get implicated all the time in other 1L courses.

[Renzo]

Another vote for K's. It and torts are the easiest, and contracts is the most systematic of all the doctrinal classes (except maybe property), which should make the transition from engineering as easy as it can be.

[heyguys]

I would echo Ks. Probably most fundamental law class except maybe torts.

[lostmymojo]

I personally felt like property was the easier of the two... obviously both of them are important.

Of course (I have property right now) I had the benefit of taking property after already having had a full semester of contracts under my belt... Just go ahead and check your "But, that doesn't make sense, why would we do it this way?" questions at the door and you will be better off for it. Yes, in property law the fact that it was done this way in the middle ages is ample enough reason to keep doing it for another few hundred years at least.

[zreinhar]

haha, will keep that in mind, so heres my sched for my 1L that will really be something lik 2.5L

Fall 2010
Torts I
LRW I
Leg Bib

Spring 2011
Torts II
Crim
LRW II

Summer 2011
Con Law

Fall 2011
Property I
Contracts I

Spring 2010
Property II
Contracts II

And from there if my rank is good, Ill transfer up, or if its not Ill just go into the FT program to make sure I can finish in an ok amount of time... any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, Civ pro was left out as it would put me well over 30 hours which is all any school accepts anyways

[lostmymojo]

There is no way in hell I would go through my second year (even part time) without taking civ pro. It sucks. It really sucks. But it is so unbelievably necessary that you just can't put it off that long. Take it asap.

Order of importance (if you have the ability to control your scheduling)

1. Civ Pro
2. Contracts
3. Torts
4. Crim / Property (there is some overlap between torts/contracts & property)

[zreinhar]

There is no way in hell I would go through my second year (even part time) without taking civ pro. It sucks. It really sucks. But it is so unbelievably necessary that you just can't put it off that long. Take it asap.

Order of importance (if you have the ability to control your scheduling)

1. Civ Pro
2. Contracts
3. Torts
4. Crim / Property (there is some overlap between torts/contracts & property)

How do you respond to PSLaplace's statement above regarding civpro?

[lostmymojo]

There is no way in hell I would go through my second year (even part time) without taking civ pro. It sucks. It really sucks. But it is so unbelievably necessary that you just can't put it off that long. Take it asap.

Order of importance (if you have the ability to control your scheduling)

1. Civ Pro
2. Contracts
3. Torts
4. Crim / Property (there is some overlap between torts/contracts & property)

How do you respond to PSLaplace's statement above regarding civpro?

I would say nearly the exact opposite (with all due respect to PSLaplace's opinion; I'm sure he has his reasons.)

Yes. It is abstract. Hell, it's downright boring. But, you need it to provide you with a base for the hundreds of cases you are going to be reading. Almost certainly, your going to start in your first couple of weeks with a broad overview of the civil process. This is going to give you lots of new vocabulary and insight that is going to be helpful to you as you read through the hundreds of cases that await.

There is not much to like about Civ Pro. You don't get juicy fact patterns that you can latch on to. However, it is a very important course and will provide some groundwork for the rest of your legal studies. Ideally you would be taking this alongside another substantive law course. However, it doesn't look like that is an option for you.

[zreinhar]

There is no way in hell I would go through my second year (even part time) without taking civ pro. It sucks. It really sucks. But it is so unbelievably necessary that you just can't put it off that long. Take it asap.

Order of importance (if you have the ability to control your scheduling)

1. Civ Pro
2. Contracts
3. Torts
4. Crim / Property (there is some overlap between torts/contracts & property)

How do you respond to PSLaplace's statement above regarding civpro?

I would say nearly the exact opposite (with all due respect to PSLaplace's opinion; I'm sure he has his reasons.)

Yes. It is abstract. Hell, it's downright boring. But, you need it to provide you with a base for the hundreds of cases you are going to be reading. Almost certainly, your going to start in your first couple of weeks with a broad overview of the civil process. This is going to give you lots of new vocabulary and insight that is going to be helpful to you as you read through the hundreds of cases that await.

There is not much to like about Civ Pro. You don't get juicy fact patterns that you can latch on to. However, it is a very important course and will provide some groundwork for the rest of your legal studies. Ideally you would be taking this alongside another substantive law course. However, it doesn't look like that is an option for you.

If you were to drop a class from my above sched, which one would it be? also, the more opinions the better, but I feel way more comfortable with the classes as i did alot of research today online about what comes with the classes, typical subject matter, etc.